Wonderland – China’s Magic Kingdom Ghost Park

If Disney has any concerns about the viability of its theme parks in China, you need look no further than Wonderland. Construction on Wonderland, located outside of Beijing, started in 1998 but was never finished. Instead all that’s left is a shell of a Magic Kingdom style theme park. Videographer Catherine Hyland recently captured these eerie scenes from the remnants of Wonderland.

The late 90s saw a lot of tourist projects in China. Many never made it to completion. Wonderland ended up in its ghost park state due to a lack of investors and some regulatory problems with the local government. Farmers in the surrounding area did not want this to be built and they were able to stop the project.

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16 thoughts on “Wonderland – China’s Magic Kingdom Ghost Park”

I’m amazed by the number of the people that seem to be milling about there. I would think that an abandoned theme park would be boarded and locked up to try to prevent people from going in in such numbers.

What surprises me is that all the shrubberies are groomed and obviously watered. Having just moved back to the US from China seeing this abandoned construction site doesn’t surprise me. They probably didn’t bribe the right Gov. Official or something. Happens all the time. Especially as you get closer to Beijing and up north. I find it hard to believe the local farmers had anything to do with the reason the construction was stopped. I’m sure it was the reason given by the government but that is so rarely the real reason. The biggest problems I think Shanghai Disney will run into is ridiculous government regulations and poor construction practices. My husband spent 2 years building a factory in China. It took twice and long and cost twice as much as it should have but in the end it got finished. Disney will be ok if they stick to it. but it will take longer than they think it will, they will have to bribe and bend to silly government officials and it will cost more than it should. But if they really want it, it can happen. They’ve already displaced local farmers so that part is already done.

Copy cat, I wouldn’t doubt that Disney would try to stop it. In one shot in the video there was a picture that looked just like one of the characters at Epcot. Not sure they would have gotten away with it.